teachers in the schools who can teach. and we have a last fired first fired unde the union rules. we don't have that any more in wisconsin. we have to have change. i don't buy this open law that says you can come into the state capitol, trash it and disrupt this legislative process. >> keep the kids in school. >> this is a fox news alert. the lapd is raiding actor charlie sheen's home. and according to tmz, law enforcement say cops received a call that sheen threatened to harm himself and under a restrin -- restraining order by his wife, he is prohibited from presenting weapons. law enforcement is inside the house, reportedly looking for arms and ammunition. he if i'med a $100 million breach of contract lawsuit against warner brother and it is producers of "two and-a-half

men." sheen was fired from that show days ago. police are in sheen's home right now. and according to m-- to tmz, sheen threatened to harm himself with a firearm. now back to "on the record with greta van susteren," already in progress. >> greta: governor walker says he will sign the bill into law as fast as he can. unions could save some sort of job action. what does this mean? speaker of the house jeff fitzgerald joins us on the phone. i could tell thinks -- things got rough today. the minority leader at one point yelled about you, your speaker is impaired and took out a bullhorn and started yelling. things got tough there today. >> yeah, some interesting times in madison. we took a vote today to put

the state back on the right track. that's what he did in the state assembly. >> greta: what is the level of vitriol? it was reported that members of the democratic members of the assembly were pounding on the door demanding to be let in. they were locked out because protesters are trying to get in. the police were locking them out. >> it was pretty difficult today. the problem they were trying to secure the building so we could get legislators in to take a vote. last night we the senate passed the bill it was difficult for myself and the majority leader to get out of the building to a safe place. within an hour of that last night they probably had 15 to 20,000 students storm the capitol building, break open doors and force their way into the building. it has been difficult and high charged. >> greta: the governor says he's going to sign this as he

can. he hasn't signed it yet, what is the hold up? >> first it has to go to the lrb and they have to put it together. then it can go to the governor for his signature. it is part of normal process. i'm sure he will sign it tomorrow. >> greta: what is the lrb? >> legislative reference bureau after we pass the bill has to put it into the correct form and then it goes to the governor's desk. >> greta: i take it everybody has now left the building. certainly the republicans have left the building. are the protesters out? >> i'm not any longer in madison. i'm at home in my district right now. we had a plan, after the vote we were escorted out of the building by police officials, taken to a safe place. all of us were out of there. i'm no longer there. >> greta: can you describe the level of threats?

i've been reading there have been death threats. give me some idea of what the republicans are going through. >> there's been threats on republican senators, republican assembly folks. i think some threats on democrats as well. i think it is all over the place. some very specific death threats, spelling out how to kill elected officials. very scary stuff. unfortunately, there's some people out there that have a real problem. it is very scary stuff. that's why i took a vote today on the floor. there wasn't a lot of debate, i was concerned for the safety of my members. >> greta: how many republicans defected and voted with the democrats today in the assembly? >> there were four republicans that voted, which had voted two weeks ago as well on the first bill. those same four voted again today did not vote with the republicans.

>> greta: collective bargaining has been stripped away. that was vetted on last night and today. now headed to the governor. why wasn't this done earlier? this could have been done on february 17th, we the 14 senators hit the road. >> we were trying to -- [ inaudible ] the financing part is part of that bill. we could have refinanced and 165 million on to take care of the debt that we are in the current budget. because democrats would not come back to the chamber those 14 missing senate democrats, it forced our hands. we thought after three separate attempts to negotiate and really give up some of the items that they were were looking for, that it was clear they were not coming back to the chamber. >> greta: i was told that budget -- the refinancing on that bond had to be done in february. turned out it didn't. i was told march.

it didn't have to be done in march. now i'm reading april is the story equipment >> i think there the -- -- the original bond issue was in late march. we are looking for every avenue to get these bonds reissued. if we don't it means lay-offs, it means 1500 people are going to lose their jobs. we are not this the business of trying to lay more people off. we are in the business to create jobs. hopefully, senate democrats will show up so we can pass the rest of it so we don't have to lay-off 1500 workers. >> greta: speaker, thank you. >> are some lawmakers going nuclear in wisconsin? >> the irony is people should be upset at the dirty tricks done by those 14 senate democrats.

for three weeks they abandoned their job and the people they represent and 14 districts and they decided that the minority could rule. we showed we could move this bill forward. we reached out to some of the reasonable ones, their leader, senator miller showed they no interest in doing anything but shutting this bill down. thankfully the legislature stood up to those tactics. >> greta: democrats are not backing down they say they are going to take back democracy. the state's number two must be getting ready for battle. lt. governor kleefish joins us live onscape. the 1500 jobs, is that an absolute -- onscape -- is an absolute the bill having passed those 1500 jobs are saved. >> thanks for having me. i appreciate it. what we're talking about with those 1500 jobs an absolute

certainly if this had not passed this budget repair bill we would certainly have looked at those 1500 lay-offs. it was a scary number to us. that's why this was so incredibly important in repair bill passed. we needed that 5.8% opinion contribution we need the health care premium. we needed concessions on collective bargaining. without those, those 1500 jobs would have to have been lost. we can't afford more job loss in wisconsin. we just had good news the other day on-the-job front. our unemployment number dropped. we created 10,000 new jobs in our private sector. wisconsin is open for business again. the best thing we can do to help our middle class is to continue to help create jobs. >> greta: can you give me any idea whether there has been national support on both sides? how has it manifested itself?

>> there have been. plenty of national support. an hour ago, i got off the phone with senator ron johnson who said he's been meeting with his colleagues who are excited to extend a hand to the state legislators of the state of wisconsin, who were bold enough to do what they needed to do to represent their constituents so we weren't continuing to kick the can down the road. on the other side of the aisle, unfortunately there has been national influences. the union >> this is a fox news alert from new york. breaking news out of japan. a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake shaking buildings in tokyo. the pacific tsunami warning center say a tsunami warning is in effect for a large swath of the pacific. and the nation's weather agency is warning that a tsunami as

high as 10 feet could hit the northeast coastline of japan. so far, there are no reports of any injuries. japan's been rocked by several earthquakes in recent days, including a 7.3 magnitude on wednesday. a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocking japan. and there is a warning that a tsunami that could be as high as 10 feet could hit the country's northeast coastline. stay with fox news for more. back to "on the record." rush it betweeny four hours? why did you have to split the bill last night? could it have waited a week? >> i think we have seen that democrats are eager, especially on the senate level to abandon what the taxpayers demanded on november 2nd. that is, we balance our budget and not continue to kick the can down the road and let this responsibility rest at the

feet of our children, sons and daughters in the state of wisconsin. i know refinancing issue sounds confusing, because it is kind of is. initially the deadline what we said it was. we continued to be as nimble as possible to fix our budget hole. we are looking at two separate budgets we we talk about the budget repair bill and our biannual budget. the budget repair bill fixes the budget for this year, the budget hole that the last administration left us with. that's why the rush to do it. our fiscal year ends, coming up at the end of june. we needed to get that refinancing in order. now we are trying something, because it really is pushing up deadlines, it has never been tried before. we so desperately need that money to balance the budget. the next budget that comes along the people are talking about is the one that had that 3.6 billion dollar deficit, that's our biannual budget that governor walker has done

an outstanding in making sure is balanced and has the lowest structural deficit in recent history. >> greta: have you gotten any threats yourself? >> i have not. in wisconsin we are encouraging passionate debate. we want passionate debate. that's what we've seen. up until recently there have been few arrests. for the most part the protests have been peaceful. what we've seen in the last 24 hours is incredibly unfortunate. governor walker is confident this debate will continue to be passionate. also, we want civil political discourse. people need to take a good look at what is going on. at the end of the day even after the budget repair bill is passed in its entirety, people will wake up the next morning, go back to their jobs and ultimately, i believe that they will see the great merits in this bill. we are reregarding --

rewarding merit and that is important. >> greta: lt. governor, thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> greta: democrats say political thuggery and republicans are committing hara-kiri political suicide. as a kid, i couldn't wait to ste on that i what was i thinking?

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the motorola xoom tablet. the first tablet powered by android 3.0, >> this is a fox news alert from new york. breaking news now out of japan. a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake shaking buildings in tokyo. you can see smoke there in toke just a moment the pacific tsunami warning center in hawaii is saying a tsunami warning is in effect for a large part of the pacific. the tsunami warning, in effect for japan, russia, the marqes islands. it is also issued for guam, thailand, the philippines and hawaii. japan's nhk said a small tsunami hit the shore near the epicenter around 3:00 p.m. local time. they warn that a tsunami as high as 20 feet could strike the

cause near miagi. the pacific tsunami center says the tsunami warning is in effect for a large part of the pacific and the weather agency is warning that a tsunami as high as 10 feet could hit the north eastcoastline of japan. there are no reports of injuries. ia pan has been rocked by several earthquakes in 7 days, including 7.3 magnitude on wednesday. once again, a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake, rocking japan. and there is a warning that a tsunamiy that could end up being as high as 10 feet could hit the northeast coastline. also, we are getting fresh reports in. we told you other countries have been issued a warning, including japan, rushia, the marques islands and a tsunami watch in guam, taiwan, the philippines, indonesia and hawaii. we are told by japan's nhk that

the small -- that a small tsunami has hit the shores near the epicenter around 3:00 p.m. their time. japan's weather agency warning that the tsunami could be as high as 20 feet in some places. and that could strike near miiagi. and that is closest to the epicenter of where this hit. the agency is say that this quake struck about 2:46 friday. and that it struck at a depth of 6 mile, about 80 miles off the eastern coast. this was an offshore earthquake. again, we are getting more as we are speaking to you right now. if you are just joining us, japan issuing its top tsunami warning after this major off-shore earthquake, measuring 7.9. it hit on friday. and it shook buildings in tokyo, sending people -- we are told -- running into the streets. that's a report coming out of tokyo. smoke was seen rise from this capitol, according to tv reports and we just showed that you a

second ago. can we show that again? if we have it? okay, don't have that. but we will bring that to you. people did run into the streets and the quake could be felt for several minutes there in tokyo. we are efforting someone that can talk to us more about this on the phone. but again, you if you are just joining us, this is a major earthquake, 7.9, hitting offshore, off of tokyo and the pacific tsunami warning center in hawaii says a warning is in effect for a large swath of the pacific after this quake hit. tsunami warning for japan, russia, the marques islands and the northern mariannas and a watch for guam, taiwan, philippines, indonesia and also hawaii of that's a huge part of the pacific being watched very closely. japan's weather ablings warning a tsunami as high as 20 feet could strike near the coast,

near miyagi. the weather agency saying that it struck around 2:46 their time, on friday, about 80 miles off that eastern coast. so far, we are not receiving any word as far as any injuries. but we are hearing that after it hit, tokyo shook for at least a few minutes and people could be seen running into the streets. that tsunami warning going into effect after the quake hit. a massive earthquake, 7.9, tokyo. no stranger to earthquakes. they had several in the past few days. we did have pictures earlier, where you could see smoke rising from the capitol and tv reports are also say that this smoke can be seen and that people were seen running into the streets. we are efforting more on this to try to -- try to bring you more as it becomes available. you can see a little bit right there. those pictures look like cars in the water.

again, no reports yet of any injuries. but as you are looking at all of these cars in the water, you can only imagine that people were inside those cars. gosh, it must have been quite a strug toll get out of the cars to try to get to safety. this is ongoing. we are just getting new information, as we are talking to you. i am going to try to read you any new warnings or any new information that we get. the pacific tsunami warning center in hawaii say that this tsunami warning is in effect for a large part of the pacific, after that 7.9 quake hit. the warning is in effect for japan, russia, marques islands and northern mariannas and a watch for guam, taiwan, philippines, indonesia and hawaii. japan's nhk is saying that a small tsunami has already hit their shore near the epicenter around 3:00 p.m. their time. and japan's weather agency is warning that an even higher

tsunami, as high as 20 feet, could strike near the coast of miyagi, which they are saying is the closest to the epicenter at this point. that agency say that this quake struck around 2:45 their time on friday. and it struck about 80 miles off the eastern coastline, shortly after they issued this tsunami warning for a large part of the pacific. so far, we are not receiving any reports as far as injuries or anybody who may have been killed by this. but smoke could be seen flowing in the middle of tokyo. >> we showed you pictures of that earlier. we are efforting more as we speak. but again, if you are just joining us, this is a massive 7.9 magnitude quake, shortly after it hit, the pacific tsunami warning center out of hawaii issuing a warning for just a large swath of the pacific. you are talking major countries that are bracing. and we are getting new video in. right there, you can see,

rushing water, a few people looking to see what's going on and rushing around. you can only imagine what we are going to see again. again, we are bringing this to you as we are getting it. these are new pictures right now. earlier, we were showing you some pictures that looked similar to this, only the water was full of vehicles. so we can only imagine what happened there and how those vehicles ended up in the water. have you to wonder if anyone was inside those vehicles. and if so, did they make it to safety? are they okay? this right here, i am looking at it, it appears to be a bridge that may have broken? can you see the rushing water. again, we are going to bring this to you as we get them. we are waiting to hear if anyone has been injured or if anyone was killed as a result of this. we are trying to get someone on the phone now. and what the tsunami warning means because this is a huge warning. i mean, we're talk japan, russia, marques island and northern mariannas and a watch,

which means they are on alert in guam, taiwan, the philippines, indonesia and also hawaii. so you are talking about a large, large area in the pacific where they are really going to be watching what is going on. a small tsunami has struck off the coast of japan at 3:00 p.m., which was much -- wasn't much time after the quake hit at 2:46. they're saying that that tsunami was small, a smaller one, but they expect that there could be one as high as 20 feet. that that could strike the coast near myagi, which they are saying is close toast that epicenter, where the quake hit. we are bringing you these pictures as they are coming n. it's really hard to tell if that's a bridge that may be collapsed during the earthquake. or what's going on there. it looks pretty chaotic. you don't really see anybody looking.

you mostly see just debris. you can see debris in the water. you can see it a few cars. they are turning around. that kind of tells you that that's possibly a bridge that collapsed or they just can't get through. earlier, we were showing you pictures of a lot of cars that were in the water. it appeared to be submerged. you can imagine fthere were people in those cars, how difficult it must have been to try to get to safety. these are other new pictures. it appears that this could be from around -- when it struck. you can see the debris, people running around. lind ai don't know if you can tell me, is this the weather agency there in tokyo? yeah. again, bear with us. we are getting these pictures in and showing them to you pretty much as we speak. you can see that sign shaking, so it appears that that was probably around the time that it hit. you can just see people running around, wildly, as you can

imagine. you are siting there one minute and the next minute everything's shaking around you. you can only imagine what that must be like. we're bringing the pictures as we get them in. 7.9 magnitude earthquake, rocking the northeast coast of japan. pacific tsunami out of hawaii, saying that a tsunami warning is now in effect for a pretty big part of the pacific. >> it's covering a lot of country, including japan, russia, northern mariannas, marques islands, you have tsunami watches all over the pacific. guam, taiwan, the philippines, indonesia, hawaii... also japan's weather agency is warning that a tsunami as high as 20 feet could strike their coast, near the epicenter of the quake. we're told that's miyagi. we are trying to learn more about this area, about whether the quake hit. you can see the smoke. that was coming out of the capitol of tokyo. you see fire there. we are also told that a lot of

people were seen running through the streets right after this happened. the weather agency saying that the quake hit about 2:45 on friday. they had a small tsunami at about 3:00 p.m. local times tlooks like. they say the quake hit 80 miles off the eastern coast, about 2:45 p.m. friday. shortly thereafter, they issued the tsunami warning. they had one small tsunamiy and now they are watching for an even larger one. i am also getting word right now that we just -- we have somebody on the phone now who can maybe talk to us more about this quake, especially about the magnitude of it. you can see everything breaking but you don't get the true picture what have it must have been like. john rundle is a seismologist with u.s. berkeley. john, thank you.

7.9, that is huge. what you can tell us? as far as, you know, the after effects. mainly, that's the tsunamiy that they are looking at now, right. >> reporter: that's a major earthquake. 7.9. these things occur about once every couple, three years on earth so they can do great damage if they are near a populated area, particularly if they occur in a trench and if they are shallow, like this one is near japan. they can cause major tsunamis and destruction. and in fact, it might be larger than that. i having something theor that ss it's an 8.8. but i don't believe that. that's kind of big. that's as big as the chilean earthquake. >> are you looking at these pictures as we are looking at them? judging by the damage, you said you were hearing 8.8 and you don't believe that can be true.

can you look at damage and tell by looking at it how strong it might have been? >> reporter: i could if i had the ability to. i am in santa fe, new mexico, i am going to the santa fe institute tomorrow to discuss issues of risk and so forth with the folks here. >> gotcha. >> reporter: but i can tell you that, if it's between 8 and 8.8 and that near japan, it could do major damage. >> we have seen smoke and fires. you can see the cars that appear to be submerged in water, possibly a bridge out. and we heard, of course, that people were running after it struck. we have watched a lot of earthquakes and there is not always a tsunami warning. it has to be a pretty big one, right? >> reporter: that's right t. has to be big and it has to be shallow and obviously, under water. a tsunami can be triggered as the one in sumatra 2004, december 26, that's one of the

largest in decades. that was a 9.2 or 9.3 earthquake and that killed 230,000-plus people. i would tend to doubt that this will do that much damage because japan is much more prepared than indonesia was. >> you know, you were talking about, you know, shallow. you said that's going to make the difference when it's shallow. tell us more about that, for people who don't study these things. >> reporter: basically, what has to happen, the sea floor has to move in a vertical direction by a fairly large amount to create the wave. the problem with tsunamis, in the open ocean, you never notice them because they are a couple of feet high. but when they get near the shore and the water is shallower, there is a non-linnier effect, which forces the wave to be much higher and so the wave slows down and the water in back of it is still rushing in, so it piles up into a large wave. thigh why you get a large, potentially,20- or 30-foot wave

near the shore. and in the ocean, it's quite a bit smaller. >> so with a quake of this magnitude, what is -- is there a range of tsunami height? i mean, if you could guesstimate. they are saying maybe as high as 20 feet? >> reporter: that would certainly be reasonable for an earthquake this big n. hawaii, you could see a tsunami of several feet that would hit probably the islands of northwest coast of aof oahu. and so it poses a risk of the u.s. and we do know, by the way, there was a major earthquake on january 26, 1500 a.d. 9:30 in the evening. that was a magnitude 9 earthquake. we know that from geological studies and because there was a tsunamiy that hit japan 10 hours later.

the tsunami that hit japan was -- >> as we're speaking, i wanted to tell you that the usgs now saying that it was upgraded to an 8.8. they are saying it was an 8.8. i know you mentioned that and you said you didn't believe that that could be what it was. but, yeah, they are confirming that. what do you think about that? as far as, especially as far as a tsunami is concernd? knowing it was a 8.8? >> reporter: remember what happened in chile just last year. that was an 8.8 earthquake as well t. caused a tsunamiy that killed several hundred people near concepcion. this is gointo cause a significant loss of life and marm damage to a highly developed, industrialized country, asja japan is. so this is going to have a very severe impact. >> you know, we always talk about when these things hit, they will hit a city and it

doesn't cause much damage. and other times, like in haiti, tell demolish everything. what you can tell us about a city like tokyo, as far as how prepared they might have been. you know, structurally. i have been out with a seismologist that said how the building was built, you know, can make a complete difference, as far as how well it holds upon against an earthquake like this? >> reporter: tokyo, itself, i don't think is at risk because it looks to me like the earthquake was in the northeast coast. so tokyo would not be directly effected. but cities like sendai, a major city in japan. and some of the coastal cities as well. i don't have a map in front of me so i can readily see t. but there are towns along there. for example, like -- i can't really pronounce these.

they could be severely impacted. i don't know what the population is of those towns. but you could see significant loss of life. >> by the way, as we were speaking, we were showing pictures -- i know you can't see them -- but it looked like cards swept away, a bridge out. we are getting word that japanese television has shown major tsunami damage in northern japan, following the quake. that's what we were seeing with the cars and trucks and appeared to be collapsed buildings that were swept away. so they say they have had one small one. how much more could they potentially see? when you are talking about a tsunami warning? >> reporter: one of the problems is going to be the aftershocks. so you could, for example, a magnitude 7 earthquakes much closer to shore, which could cause even more damage. i am getting -- what i am looking at right now is a web site we built, called

www.openhazard.com, which is a site that anybody can go to and find forecasts. in all honesty, that's what i am looking at here. it's all web based. so your viewers could look at that as well. >> something you seismologists put together. >> reporter: yes. >> to monitor situations like this. >> reporter: yes. >> what can you tell us that we are not already telling people? >> reporter: well, i'd say, you know, we -- about this particular event, not a whole lot because -- i just have -- am in the dark about much of the details. i expect most people are. but i can say a major earthquake like this are not necessarily increasing in frequency, but they are increasing in destructiveness because people are moving into the at-risk areas, so as the population grows and the population gets concentrated more in the cities, these kinds of disasters are more and more prevalent.

since 2000a a.d., we have had a major earthquake every year that has killed tens of thousands of people. i think the total stands at something approaching a million people, killed in earthquakes in the last 10 years. >> japan is no strangers to earthquakes. wouldn't they have reinforced their buildings? they are at the epicenter, they are off from that. but would you say that they probably are more prepared than most cities because of their history? >> reporter: historically in japan, they have built buildings that could easily -- would tend to fall down in earthquakes. and so they had problems with fires as a result of that. now what they do and what we do is we do a lot of seismic retrofitting. you can build buildings to be rigid or flexible. both approaches are used.

when the ground heaves and you see a lot of ground damage, it doesn't matter what you do to the structure, it is going to collapse. so, you know, there is only so much you can do, but -- what one should do is retrofit buildings if you know you are in a seismically active area as we are in california. >> i did a story on the fact that the middle of our country is -- they see their share of small earthquakes and they are preparing for a potential big one and they were talking about reinforcing buildings along that fault line, the new madras fault and trying to talk cities into reinforcing buildings. but you are saying, depending on the earthquake, it doesn't matter, because it can still do damage. >> reporter: that's correct. in the earthquakes in 1811, 1812, they were in the range of sizes from 7 to 8. they rerouted the mississippi and they did a great deal of damage, which you can see still

the residual of, out there, if you know where to look, as a geologist. >> they said the river actually flopped backwards at one point, due to the earthquake. >> reporter: yeah, yes. so, yeah. so this is a major event. you know, we can only hope that the japanese people will deal with it. >> as we are talking, i am getting reports that i want to be able to share with people. i believe we said this earlier, that we did have some pictures of major tsunami damage in northern japan. you know, we had been showing people peculiars and it looked like there were cars in the water, buildings down. and we really weren't sure what to make of t. but this is damage from a tsunami. they said they had a smaller tsunami earlier and that they were expecting one that could be even larger. and you were talking about that, john, about the fact that if it starts shallow that it could have the potential to be huge, once it hit. can you talk about that a little bit more for people who are

maybe just joining us? >> one of the things that one has to worry about at this point, knowing that tsunamis can get across oceans as large as the pacific, the tsunami should get to -- hawaii in about four or five hours from now, i'm just guessing. and to the western coast of the u.s., probably in 9 to 10 hours from now. so the people on the west coast in places in crest city, at the end of a very narrow, long cove, if you will... should be warned and possibly evacuated. the people in crest city were struck by a tsunami in the 1960s in alaska, from an earthquake, something on the order of 10 to 20 people were killed in that suup that -- tsunami. >> i want you to say that again. you said that the u.s. coast, some places along the united states coastline should be worried, even though there hasn't been, tech call a tsunami warning issued for them?

>> reporter: yes. these events, if there is a three- or four-foot tsunami in the western coast of the u.s. from this thing, and i am just guessing here off the top of my head, knowing what i know from past earthquakes in alaska, that sent tsunamis to japan and from the coast of oregon and washington in 1700 a.d., which sent the tsunami tow japan, a meter or so in height. that could happen in reverse. so this earthquake could create a tsunami which could endanger some folks in the u.s. >> do you think that that'sing something that the tsunami warning center will eventually include? >> reporter: of course. >> as things progress, they might expand that? right now, they are saying that the warning is in effect for japan, russia, marcus island and it is northern mariannas and they went on to issue a watch for guam, taiwan, fill philippines, indonesia and hawaii. and you think that could be expanded? >> reporter: it could be. without any further data, having

not seen or done any calculations, i am just guessing that it's possible. >> let's talk about that again, as far as who might get the worse, when you are talking about a tsunami? you did mention that if it starts shallow, it will get bigger. but the places that have been issued a watch, like guam, philippines. what should they be bracing for? >> reporter: i imagine they should be bracing for a tsunami, anywhere from 6 inches to 3 or 4 feet in height, could do significant damage since many of those countries are pretty low lying and have a -- you know, they have structures on the coast and so forth. so it could do damage to them as well. >> all right. you know, again, as we are speaking, we are getting more information in. if you are just joining us, the u.s. geological survey saying an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast, off the northeast

coast of japan, about 2:45 their time. right now, i am spawk speaking with john rundle, a u.c. berkeley seismologist. john, i would like to talk to you more as this is progressing. but i am going to go ahead and take us to fox news bangkok correspondent. david, what you can tell us about what is going on there? >> reporter: well, i lived in japan before. they have a very organized way of dealing with this. this is a large quake, not too far from tokyo. but they have low-lying buildings. they are braced for this kind of thick. but a tsunami, they can't really take into account, because you could get a 20-foot wave or 6 inches as the previous person said. so at the moment, it's a wait and see if a tsunami will be formed and spread across the pacific. but as you know from the tsunami that hit in thailand and came from just off -- sumatra and

indonesia, it can spread a long way. it went as far as india and sri lanka. so it depends on the type of earthquake and what height it is on the land. >> david, you said you lived there before. were you there when an earthquake hit at any other time? >> reporter: yes. when i lived in tokyo. there was often tremors. one time i was walking across a foot bridge and it was swaying like a fun fair ride at one time. it was quite scary. another time, i was lying in bed and it felt like a train went past. everything moved in the room and this quake is much larger and it was only perhaps 200 miles from toke tokyo. so you can imagine, people are very frightened. >> you know, you talked about reinforcing structures and i was speaking to a seismologist about that. it seems like, based on tokyo's history, they would have reinforced buildings and would

be prepared for something like this. did you get that feeling when you lived there? >> reporter: the modern building, many of the modern buildings are reinforced and they can sway. but a lot of buildings in tokyo were built straight after the war in the 1950s. i lived in one and they would ce down with a major earthquake. and there is also a concern in tokyo bay because they built there on the land which is often sand underneath. as we found from the kobe earthquake, that can ripple and that can bring buildings down. and there is a report, i see now, that smoke was seen rising from building in tokyo port. so that might be affected more than other areas of tokyo. >> we were showing that picture earlier of smoke rising from tokyo. do we have that picture that we can show? lipa? if we don't, that's all right. david, i want to you talk to people more because you lived there and you have lived through

an earthquake like this. we were just talking about structures and whether or not they were reinforced. but is this something that the people are prepared for? do they know what to do in the event of something like this how are they trained to deal with something like -- or are they? >> reporter: on an official level, they are very well trained with major evacuation rescue teams. and they have areas where you should go in the case of an earthquake, parks and things like that, so you know where to go, where you can be protected away from the buildings. but tokyo is a massive city. the big scaref is if there was a bigger earthquake. have you to remember, back in the early part of the 20th century, yokihama, a neighboring city to tokyo was hit by the big canto earthquake. and that was flattened there. so there is a hill on yokihama and under that hill is what remains of the town. they scooped it up and built a

hill because the earthquake was so strock. people in japan are aware. they do know the danger. i won't say they are fatalistic, but they do live with it all the time. there are always tremors in tokyo and that part of the country. >> as we are talking to you, we are getting more pictures every couple of minutes, we are looking at a building with smoke coming out of it that appears to be on fire. there is traffic moving around it. but this building appears to be on fire. can't see any other movement, other than that. we have not really received any solid reports as far as anyone injured or may have been killed as a result of this. vidavid piper on the phone with us, a fox news correspondent out of bangkok. you said you used to live in tokyo, so you know this all too well. you lived through a quake there. tell us more about that and how orgthyselfed it was? or was it chaotic after the earthquake happend? this is something that you said that they prepare for, people

live with, correct? >> reporter: believe it or not tbecomes quite normal. there are often loud tremors. you will get them every month, at least, some kind of tremor, sometimes you will miss t. but the great fear is a very large earthquake. from what i am hearing now, it cements that tokyo has dodged a bullet in some respects. have you one building on fire, that is very, very small to what could happen. have you to remember that japan is in the ring of fire of the pacific, a very unstable place. >> david, it looks like there are several buildings on fire at this point in tokyo. >> reporter: is there? >> yeah. they just found out -- just got this -- they were hit by a 13-foot tsunami. this just came across. we are seeing a lot of that. there is a lot of rushing water through the city. we have seen a lot of vehicles in the water. it looked like a bridge out. that's what we were looking out.

it looked like that bridge was out. a few people mulling about. but you were talk about this fact that the buildings are reinforced and that pipe are prepared for this. this is something that they know could happen. you were just saying, this is a very volatile area in the ring of fire. that's right. the newer buildings are built -- >> just to clarify. the 13-foot tsunami i was talking about. it did wash away cars and believes, that was along the coast. just want to clarify, doesn't say specifically that that was in tokyo. but we have been looking at a lot of pictures of the damage.

>> reporter: they have a great history of earthquakes and tsunamis in japan. people on the coast know of the danger. you might know of the famous picture of the tsunami wave, a big, blue picture. that's because the people know about the danger. when i covered the tsunami which hit here in southeast asia, i went out with the sea gypsies off thailand. and they knew in their history that if a tsunami comes, the water rushes away, first of all. when you have that, you head for the hills. and the japanese people know that. if they can get the warning. with modern technology, people are warned about these things. >> you know, it seems like they did get the warnings out pretty quick. they were already sending out the warnings. and it looks like 15 minutes after that, they said a small

tsunami hit at that point. but now we are hearing that at least a 13-foot tsunami did wash away the cars and buildings, at least along the coast and that was near the epicenter, of where the quake hit. we are told that was 80 miles offshore. you know, as we sit here and talk, david, we are looking at more pictures of some of the damage that was done. we saw a large ship swept away -- we didn't see that here. but we have seen pleny of cars. when you -- plenty of cars. when you see the cars, the first thing you think is: were there people inside those cars? >> reporter: that's right. when the tsunami hit phuket. we had a vessel, about 600 meters off the coast. and there was what was left of the lake. that's a great danger, there are a lot of coast roads and cars can get swept away. but coming back to the point of a tsunami netokyo, it is very

unlikely a tsunami could hit tokyo because it's tokyo bay. it's likely surrounded, it's difficult to get a straight line of site into the bay, that would be very unlikely. so those pictures are likely to be the coastline, north of tokyo, where the earthquake first hit. >> yeah. that's what we figured, near the epicenter. you were telling us about tokyo bay, saying that that would provide a buffer, as far as the city of tokyo is concerned. >> it would. but there is a danger in tokyo bay because of the building there. very high-rise buildings as well, a lot of experts have said that this is a real danger, building on not very strong base, you know, it's a sand base, there is rocks, but modern buildings have been built to sway, with the earthquake. but if have you smoke rising from buildings around the port, it looks like there has been some damage there. which a lot of people have

predicted in the past. >> david, i wanted to add that as we were talking, we are hearing there have been several aftershocks, which is always a fear, after you have a major quake like this one. it's say that this aftershocks are strong. one of them is a 7.5 magnitude and that happened, it says, 30 minutes after the big one hit. that's something that we see in situations like this. when you were there, is that something that you went through, that you experienced yourself? that must be pretty scary. >>. >> reporter: the water -- what i had was basically large tremors. earthquakes, but not of this magnitude. not ofay.8. the aspect to look at now is japan's infrastructure. we do know that the high-speed bullet trains stopped immediately. they do get warnings, with the driver and the other thing that is a real danger for japan, they have a major nuclear industry.

it would be interesting to know if that has been affected because there have been concerns in the past. >> wow. do they have a plan if something like that happend? i am sure they must have precautions to protect those facilities. >> reporter: they do. but there has been concerns in the past. there has been a few stories of scares there and lack of safety in the past. in the last 15 years, even when i was there, there was a concern about the nuclear industry there. you have to be very carul when you have an earthquake of that magnitude. it can affect industries like that. >> you know, right now, we are looking at more pictures. what we are seeing, in case you can't see, we are seeing people gather in the streets, probably pretty scared and in shock. i mean, you said you weren't there for a major one like this. but tell us what it's like when something like this happens, even if it's just a major

tremor. the real thing is, if an earthquake strikes anywhere in the world, particularly in tokyo, you really need to get out of the building quickly or at least protect yourself from a door frame or a stairwell. in these situations, even in taiwan, we know that people have to get out of those buildings quickly, particularly the older buildings because they can come down very quickly. so the japanese people do know of the risk and they do know what they need to do, but when you have a population of perhaps 20 million in the tokyo area, it's not an easy task. >> kionly imagine all of those people. it says after this struck, buildings were shaking violently and people could be seen running tointo the streets. i would imagine it would be pretty scary and pretty chaotic. and we are seeing people mulling about, wondering what the heck just happened? >> reporter: well, that's

right. it's the first few minutes. you can seen the amazing videos when the earthquakes strike at shops and offices, it's a very frightening experience. i do remember when this earthquake hit when i was in tokyo that it really was unbelievable because everything in the room shook. it's like a toy. it felt like, as it hit, a train -- a train very close, going past. so it's a scary experience. >> you know, for people who are joining us, i want to go ahead and recap what's going on here. 8 passport 8 magnitude earthquake, hitting off the northeast coast of japan, 80 miles off the coast, we're told. that already triggered a 13-foot tsunami. we have been showing pictures for quite a while of cars washed away, buildings torn up, buildings on fire, smoke coming

from a couple of buildings in tokyo. we have lots of locations along japan's coast with footage, showing severe flooding and cars and boats submerged and carried along by fast-moving waters and a large ship, swept away, by the tsunami. so that rammed directly into a break water, near myagi, which we are told is at the epistrsm epistrsm -- at the epicenter. the quake struck about 2:45 local time. by 3:00, they had had at least one small tsunami. since that struck, there have been a series of smaller aftershocks, i say smaller aftershocks, but one of them is 7.4 magnitude. so that's not small. that occurred about 30 minutes after the big one of, after the 8.8. we are going to go ahead and go again to -- actually, we're going to go to our meteorologist here. hi, rick.

>> reporter: hi. >> what can you tell us? we have been talking about the tsunami warning and that it could be expanded to include more of pacific. if you heard anything along those lines. >> reporter: a hurricane watch has been issued for hawaii. so that is obviously a concern to one of our states i. wow. as we are talking -- i have to talk about this. we are watching -- it appears the tsunami coming nthe smaller one that was 13 feet. we are -- it looks like it's carrying homes and cars and everything else. are they still worried about consequent tsunamis? that could do that damage or worse? >> reporter: these are not live pictures, is that correct? >> this is stuff we got in. we are told that this is a 13-foot tsunamiy that hit 30 minutes after the 8.8 that hit offshore. >> reporter: right. >> that's what we are looking at. so we have had these for a little while. >> reporter: where this is, if

it was 30 minutes ago, there wouldn't be any other large tsunamis. they come in a series of waves. but, you know,ing in that can go on that long. >> that was my question. i am glad you are talking about that because what is the time frame they look at, as far as the danger zone? are we out of that danger zone? >> reporter: we are not necessarily. we are just -- these are extremely destructive pictures. this has already occurred. but areas farther down shore and farther away from the center of the storm -- center of the earthquake, certainly would continue to see the tsunami spreading into different areas. so what we are seeing these pictures right here, that's already occurred. i am saying 80 mys, 100 miles up the coast, continually sees very similar-type tsunamis. >> but as far as we are talking,

i was talking to the seismologist and he said that the tsunami warning could be expanded to the coast of the united states, even -- does it sound like that could happen? >> reporter: no. a tsunami watch has been issued for hawaii. and a statement has been issued for the west coast of the u.s. they haven't at this point issued any kine of a -- any kind of a warning or watch, but it's under review. as soon as they are done with that, they will be able to say it's all clear or, you know, that there is some concern. it takes a long time, a relatively long time for the waves to move across the ocean. they will move to 4- to 500 miles per hour. if there were a tsunami nehawaii, it would probably be another six hours or so before the waves would arrive there. west coast would be another -- i -- i don't know, but another 7 hours after that. so we will have plenty of time to get that information for

hawaii and for the west coast of the u.s. the more immediate threat of locations that are very close to japan i. some of those -- russia and the mariannas, there are certain places that were under this warning almost immediately. the watch is in effect as well. so the way you are describing this, though, for people, this is something that could stretch on for quite a while. they will be watching for several hours. >> reporter: well, they certainly are. they have their buoys out in the water. they are able to check those buoys and see if there is any change in sea level. that's how they get an idea if areas past those buoys need to be concerned or not. so, you know, we will have very good information developing out in the next hour or so about any watches that might be issued for the west coast of the u.s. or if it becomes a warning for hawaii. we will have, you know, a lot of that information coming within the next hour or so. but there will be plenty of